Trinity Laban String Ensemble and Leon Bosch: Marking 50 years since the Soweto Uprising

Tonight, internationally renowned performer, conductor and teacher, Leon Bosch leads Trinity Laban String Ensemble in a programme of music by three South African composers, marking 50 years since the Soweto Uprising. 

Leon Bosch Conductor
Trinity Laban String Ensemble
Maximilian Lamprecht Solo Double Bass

On 16 June, 1976, more than 10,000 students from Soweto took to the streets in a peaceful protest against the apartheid regime. Police answered with shots. It was a spark that kindled into months of conflict, a turning-point in South African history. 

Trinity Laban double bass professor Leon Bosch is the son of an activist father, and he himself was arrested in 1976 – an event that derailed his ambitions to study law, steering him instead towards music.  Tonight, he conducts Red Ink,  Shane Woodborne’s elegiac Soweto-inspired concerto which was written for his childhood friend Bosch in 2019, alongside Mokale Koapeng’s Malatsi A Bosha (Days of Thy Youth) and Gideon Fagan’s Suite for Strings. 

Hear more about Leon’s life and experience in this BBC documentary.   

Programme: 

Mokale Koapeng  Malatsi A Bosha (Days of Thy Youth) 

1.  Tshimologo (Introduction)
2. Kuruetso (A Setswana Lullaby)
3. Masogwana Atswa Bogwera (Boys from the Mountain) 

Shane Woodborne Red Ink: Concerto for Double Bass and String Orchestra
Soloist Maximilian Lamprecht  

1. The Dawn of a Fateful Day 
2. Confrontation and Tragedy
3. A Song of Mourning 

 Gideon Fagan Suite for Strings  

1. Prelude
2. Berceuse
3. Sarabande
4. Plaisanterie
5. Elégie
6. Vivacité